Where Have All the Birds Gone?

As I was looking through some of the pictures from this summer (like the one above by my son, Jack), I realized, or reaffirmed, how much I had miss the birds. I know I've posted about seeing some birds flitting here and there, but so much of my summer seems to have been spent looking at birds, and I miss the quiet joy I would get from watching them.

Following some time spent in my backyard doing some gardening last June I became fascinated with the idea of birdwatching and counting. I had previously taken the time to take some walks with my wife and kids at some area parks at which birding is popular, you know the type of place where one can go with thistle in hand, and have small birds land in their hands to eat the seed. Following this "garden-oument" of sorts last summer, I became more dedicated to observing the birds in my backyard, eventually following, for a series of summer-long posts, a family of American Robins who were living in a nest on our house.

Now, here I am in the dead of winter and my backyard, as previously "reported", is an "aviary ghost town", deserted accept for the occasional crow flyover. But, I haven't lost the desire to see and capture in my notebook and camera, regional birds at work and play! So, while the activity has been nonexistent in my backyard, after checking the national Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the Cornell School of Ornithology, I realized that my own anecdotal observation-- that there was a lot happening, just not in my very small neck of the urban woods--was accurate. Given this, I am now looking to explore my community more deeply... this time with the intent of photographing and noting the behaviors of, local birds.

Wish me luck!